Buller Steer Syndrome (hereinafter, referred to as simply “BSS”) is a behavioral disorder commonly exhibited by feedlot cattle. It is characterized by a tendency of some feedlot steers to mount the backs, or “bull,” particular other steers on a persistent basis and not for any breeding or sexual purposes. In this dynamic, consistently dominant behaving steers are referred to as “riders,” while consistently subordinate steers are called “bullers.” Typically, in a feedlot pen containing several steers, a particular one or few buller steers are continually ridden by the same several rider steers. And although butlers usually do not aggressively resist being bulled, after enduring being ridden over prolonged periods of time, they become fatigued and often show significant outward symptoms of duress. At minimum, those symptoms can be in the form of bruising, abscesses and hair loss. At worst, bulling behavior leads to buller steer suffering movement loss, broken bones, stress-related illness and even death—any of which can result in a steer's meat yield potential being greatly diminished, if not entirely lost. Consequently, BSS represents a significant negative economic impact to feedlot ranchers, and it, along with bovine respiratory disease and footrot, is one of the top three health concerns in the cattle feeding industry.
It has been estimated that bulling behavior renders a loss of between $25 and $70 per butler steer to the feedlot industry. Reflected in that range of figures are the incremental costs of providing labor and facilities to segregate butlers and riders in separate pens, as well as weight loss and other forms of yield degradation. Therefore, ranchers and researchers alike have continually endeavored to identify both the underlying cause(s) of BSS and effective ways to combat it. As for causation, although nothing has been definitively proven scientifically, varying levels of consensus have formed around notions of BSS being triggered by the following factors related to feedlot cattle: pheromones; odors (of steers generally and of their urine); estrogen level; testosterone level; breed type; body size; age; hair coloration; horn status; feed substances; place of raising; social hierarchy; weather; and pen size/density. In particular, considerable credence has been given to the idea that butlers release odors or pheromones that entice other steer to ride them.
Since there is no known “cure” or even foolproof way of predicting bulling behavior among a random set of steers, surveilling bulling activity and then responsively managing the behavior is a substantial responsibility of feedlot operators. Heretofore, well-recognized methods of managing bulling behavior virtually all involved physically segregating identified bullers from riders and other non-bullers—either by placing them in altogether separate holding pens or by integrating overhead barriers and other partitions into pen structures for the purpose of making the act of mounting physically untenable. Of course, as previously mentioned, that management activity comes at a labor and facility cost. Furthermore, placing butlers in their own separate butler pen is only marginally effective due to the fact that some previously butler steers then begin displaying bulling behavior toward other steers within the butler pen environment. In fact, the present inventors have observed that confining butlers exclusively to butler pens has about a 30% rate of success (i.e., approximately only 30% of isolated butlers ultimately escape negative impacts of bulling and reach their full yield potential). And the cost and ineffectiveness of present butler isolation methods proportionately increases with increased steer count, as it has been observed that the greater the number of steers confined within a single pen or control area, the greater incidence of butlers there tends to be. That, in turn, may necessitate the existence of more separate pen areas for separately housing steers identified as butlers initially and so-identified after a round(s) of segregation.
Thus, there is an outstanding need to inhibit bulling behavior in a manner that is more outcome and cost effective than is the conventional practice of erecting partitions to segregate cattle. The present inventors have observed that the compound described herein and methods for its use substantially fulfill this need.